Required Services

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We greatly appreciate the support of professors across campus in promoting the Writing
Center to their students. However, we have limited resources, and, unfortunately,
we cannot support required use of our services.

This issue is not unique to the SJSU campus--it is a problem that many university
writing centers face. We think the UNC Chapel Hill Writing Center does an excellent job of explaining why required visits can be detrimental not only
to writing centers but to students as well.

Demand for our services exceeds the supply of appointments. When students make appointments
because they are required to come, they prevent students who voluntarily seek help
from getting it. We seek to reward intellectual initiative and commitment by keeping
all appointments available to those who make their own decisions to improve as writers.

Writing Center services complement and supplement the writing instruction that takes
place within courses. We do not have the staff to support individual writing instruction
for all students in any single course. Our services cannot replace the writing instruction
necessary in any particular course.

Students who aren't invested don't learn well. Past experience has taught us that
students who visit the Writing Center under some form of requirement are not necessarily
interested in improving their writing skills. Some (not all) come expecting to stay
for just a few minutes so that we will write an e-mail attesting to their appearance
here. While their visits acquaint them with our services (and sometimes develop into
worthwhile sessions), often these students simply fill up our appointment schedule
and prevent other students from getting an appointment. Given the high demand for
our services, we cannot afford to allot space to students who haven't expressed interest
in their development as writers.

While we request that professors do not require students to use our services, all
professors are more than welcome to encourage their students to visit the Writing
Center, and we are happy to provide house calls to talk about the Writing Center to
any class.

We greatly appreciate your cooperation in this matter. If you have any questions,
feel free to contact us.